Severn House Publishers
Featuring: Ursula Blanchard; Sir Francis Godolphin; Christopher Spelton
227 pages ISBN: 1448313562 EAN: 9781448313563 Kindle: B0CLKVSM4S Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
The long, craggy peninsula of Cornwall features in the 23rd mystery featuring Ursula Blanchard, now Mistress Stannard after being wed and widowed. In middle age, this lady still has duties as the barely-acknowledged half-sister to the Queen of England. This time she investigates a plot TO SEIZE A QUEEN.
Sir Francis Godolphin, a landowner, brings a tale of slave takers preying on his people to the Court of Queen Elizabeth I at Hampton Court in 1594. While the Cornish have been smugglers, the tables have been turned. Someone is abducting skilled workers, and one, a travelling minstrel, manages to escape by jumping off a ship bound for Constantinople. His information leaves no doubt that this is a highly organised trade. A young woman was killed, perhaps for knowing too much.
Ursula is persuaded to go to the house of a missing scholar, Mr. Wells, and claim she is his cousin, gathering information about everyone in the locality and their potential for involvement. She brings her staff of Buckley and his wife Dale, who is Ursula’s faithful maid, and the daring agent, Christopher Spelton. The rest of the story contrasts the rich life at the palace with stone-built clifftop dwellings, cellars, seaside caves and the difficulties of getting the good local foods home – or indeed, walking uphill in big skirts. Mules feature largely.
An interesting historical feature is a Royal Progress, in which the monarch and their extensive household would travel around the country, hospitality being arranged ahead of time, to see and be seen. Ordinary people generally didn’t get to talk to the Queen, in Tudor days, but they were entitled to see her, and she put on grand dresses and jewels to look the part they expected. All this was very expensive, and most of the cost was borne by the local landowners, saving the Treasury a lot of money. Ursula tells us all about the proceedings.
Queen Elizabeth's secret agent always faces danger, but this time it’s distinctly personal. Ursula would be a target for the kidnappers, as would Elizabeth. While the early part of the exciting story is about getting established locally, the latter half moves faster and sheds considerably more blood. Fiona Buckley has been providing historical murder mysteries for twenty years, and she demonstrates her trademark knowledge of both princely living and homespun households in TO SEIZE A QUEEN. The change of scene keeps the series fresh, with plenty of entertainment.
Queen Elizabeth's half-sister and secret agent Ursula Stannard takes on a dangerous new mission involving mysterious disappearances and murder in Cornwall in this gripping Tudor mystery.
1594. Ursula Stannard is attending on her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth, when she receives an urgent summons from Sir Robert Cecil. Cornishman Master Roskilly was fished out of the sea by Sir Francis Godolphin, and has a shocking tale of being snatched by pirates and put on a slave vessel to Constantinople before his audacious escape.
And he’s not the only one. . . Folk in Cornwall are mysteriously disappearing. But why are only exceptional or unusual individuals being kidnapped, and could there be a link to two recent murders?
With the queen’s annual progress stalled, Ursula agrees to go undercover to unmask those responsible, knowing that Queen Elizabeth would be the most prized captive of all . . .
Fans of S.J. Parris, C.J. Sansom and Rory Clements won’t want to miss this compelling, impeccably researched Tudor mystery.
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